


Connections

by Coryphefish



Series: Bioware won't write a Marianders reunion, so I guess I'll just write ALL of them... [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cats, F/M, Fluff, Red Hawke, Reunion, Some angst, Warrior Hawke - Freeform, ballgown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 15:36:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6200911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coryphefish/pseuds/Coryphefish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anders arrives in Skyhold, and the Inquisitor holds a war table meeting to decide what to do. Josephine's report is by FAR the best one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Footsteps echoed distantly, and Josephine looked up. The lone raven hopped off the windowsill and set off toward Leliana's tower in a flurry of silent wings. Moments later, Judit Lavellan strode purposefully past her desk, heading toward the war room, but the diplomat had already sent her aide after Cullen with a single nod.

Rising from her desk, Josephine followed the Inquisitor to the massive table. She considered bringing out Varric's letter right away, but finally decided to wait for the others to arrive with their reports. (Her report would be chosen because it was clearly superior and not because she'd taken unfair advantage of her office location!) Leliana arrived next, failing to hide a deep scowl, and Cullen followed a few minutes later, returned Judit's smile with an uneasy nod, and avoided any further attempts at eye contact. 

Josephine gathered the reports, added the letter to the top of the bundle, and handed them over. 

**[A letter from Varric]** _Blondie's here. Anders. The guy half of Thedas still might be after. He's asking about Hawke. Apparently he saw her in the Fade with us, and it didn't take him long to figure out who you were or how to get to Skyhold. Anyway, he's kind of torn up about the whole thing, so I put him up in the attic with Cole for now. I'm not all that excited to be around him, if it's all the same to you, but we need to do something soon before the wrong people recognize him...like the Seeker._

_-Varric_

**[Annotation by Leliana]** _Inquisitor, perhaps I am also one of the "wrong people" but have all of you forgotten this man's crimes against the Chantry...and all of Thedas? He assassinated a Grand Cleric and ignited the mage rebellion._

Cullen's report began, "Maker's breath, of ALL the apostates in Thedas..."

Leliana's report focused mostly on scouts, letters, and coordinating an escort. Too dull. Too straightfowrard. Most of all, too hard to tell whether she was also planning to coordinate an "unfortunate accident" Predictably, it fluttered down to the war table and landed on top of Cullen's.

Josephine tried to keep a neutral expression as Judit picked up the third report and began to read. It was soon clear from the Inquisitor's expression that this was the one she would approve.

_\-- I will spread the rumor that someone at Skyhold knows where Anders is. Too vague of a lead for bounty hunters to bother, but more than enough to bring the Champion hurrying back. In fact, it is not outside the realm of possibility that she will arrive just in time for Skyhold's first ball. (Have I not told you of this before now? Must have slipped my mind. We are most definitely hosting a ball.) I think I can get her a suitible gown. Remember the red one we originally intended for...but I digress. As risky as this sounds I believe Anders would be safest if he also cleaned up and joined the festivities. Imagine how conspicuous and vulnerable he would be spending the evening all alone in a desolate corner of Skyhold dressed as an apostate. Inquisitor, I'm begging you for the love of everything good in this world, we must arrange for the two of them to meet on the dance floor as if by chance and then watch what happens._


	2. Chapter 2

Josephine paused before opening the door. What did Varric mean by "torn up about the whole thing?" As she considered the most reassuring approach to take, she heard Cole's voice through the door... 

"The prince is screaming at her, but it's just noise now. She looks at the fading red light in the dark sky. The chantry was there a minute ago, but now it's just sky. Why didn't you tell her? She could have helped. She wanted to help. She looks at you. Why are you sitting down? Why do you feel so far away? Your back is turned, but it's not because you're afraid of her. Something else. Something worse. You shouldn't be sitting. Stand up! You're scaring her. She wants to gather you up in her arms and run away, but she can't. Please stand up. Please..."

"Yes, that's her," (A new voice. Probably Anders. A lot more relaxed than she'd expected) "where is she? Have you seen her?"

"Justice is calm," (Cole again) "the cats are purring, and Marian...is safe. She feels safe. She has to be safe. Oh hello, look at your little paws! Do you have a name already? What do you think of Lady Shadowpaws. No, not quite. Lady Fluffypaws?

"Wait how are you doing that?" (Anders)

"I...I helped!" (Cole)

"Can you use that trick to find Marian?"

"The nightmare demon's voice feels like a brick in her chest. His words turn it to ice. Faint echoes. Hissing whispers in her ear. Intrusive thoughts that are not her own. Always: "Anders will die." The demon picks through her dreams. It knows. It sent them to her. Now she is in its realm. The nightmares crash into her one by one. She finds you in the ranks of the traitor wardens. She finds you captured by the Seeker. She finds you twisted by Corypheus, coming to kill her. She finds your decaying body in the Deep Roads, too late. She finds an unmarked grave and a wind-tattered noose. Too many mornings on the road with the Inquisition she wakes up screaming."

"That's...that's better I think, but..." His voice dropped to an urgent murmur "but where is she now?"

Cole turned suddenly, looked straight in Josephine's direction, and said in a startled voice:

"She is coming to Skyhold!"

Josephine threw the door open, and hurried into the room for damage control. First get Cole out of the way, then stop Anders from asking any more questions.

"Cole, the ducks are swimming in the south end of the pond."

"What?" Cole jumped to his feet. "But it's not supposed to rain for another three days!"

"Wait!" Anders stood up too, but Cole vanished. 

"You must be Anders," Josephine said. She felt as if she had been about to say something different. Something carefully planned and intended to manipulate a situation, but she couldn't remember what it was.

"Marian is..." he began, as if in a daze, but trailed off forgetfully. He was holding a longhaired black cat, and he absentmindedly rubbed its ears. Another cat finished climbing up the back of his coat, and peeked its head over his shoulder. 

Josephine remembered why she'd come. "My name is Josephine Montilyet. I'm the Inquisitor's diplomatic advisor." She saw Anders narrow his eyes in suspicion, so she continued quickly. "--The Inquisitor is an ally of the mage rebellion, so you're not going to stand trial, but we still need to keep you hidden."

(...and cleaned up) she added to herself, looking over the apostate's bedraggled clothes. His hair fell well past his shoulders, and his beard looked like he hadn't touched it since Hawke left.

"Here, put this on." She handed him a fur-trimmed hooded cloak. Most of her aides were wearing similar cloaks. Some had their hoods up, and some had them down.

Nobody gave the group a second glance as they left the tavern, heading back to the main building.

"We'll have to work on your disguise too," Josephine said in a low voice as they walked across the courtyard. 

"Too bad...I was beginning to like the unkempt mountain man look," Anders smirked.

"Most of your wanted posters anticipated that," Josephine warned. "My stylists can help you fix your hair into something less conspicuous."

"That's fine," he shrugged. "As long as they don't shave it all off." 

Now that he mentioned it, Josephine thought, a shaved head and a long beard would probably be the least recognizable way to style his hair...but he'd already declined, and she suspected Hawke would strongly disapprove as well.


	3. Chapter 3

Just as Josephine suspected, the rumor of "Someone at Skyhold knows where Anders is" changed almost immediately as news of the ball spread. Now most forms of it specified: "One of the guests attending the ball knows where Anders is." Thanks to the considerable guest list, this was not only more vague for bounty hunters, but more specific for her plans with Hawke...and it gave the Champion a clear incentive to show an interest in the festivities.

The morning of the ball, there was a knock on her door, and a nervous aide slipped into the room.

"Lady Montilyet, the Champion of Kirkwall is here."

Josephine smiled. "Excellent. Arrange for servants to bring her the dress and help her get cleaned up."

"Lady Montilyet...." the aide began nervously, "the Champion of Kirkwall insists on speaking with you. Immediately."

"Tell her... tell her my office hours ended an hour ago."

"I did. Then she told me she was going to stand outside the door and stare at your guests until you let her in."

Josephine was silent for a moment. Anders had been much easier to deal with. 

"Lady Montilyet, the Duke of Lydes will be coming in an hour for--"

"I know."

Another aide came scurrying in. 

"Lady Montilyet, I'm sorry, I told her not to--"

The door gave way to an unrelenting armored boot, and Marian Hawke strode up to Josephine's desk as if...well...as if her lover was being held in custody.

"He's here, isn't he?"

Both aides fled.

"What makes you ask that?" Josephine kept her face relaxed and couldn't help but wonder how good the Champion was at Wicked Grace.

"The rumor." Hawke was fighting to stay calm. "Please just tell me. Is that the message you were trying to send me?" 

"Champion, you must be mistaken..."

"Please, Lady Montilyet," Hawke pleaded, her voice catching. "I have to know if he's okay."

Josephine hesitated. She wanted to set Hawke's mind at ease, but if she wasn't extremely careful about how she did it, the very next request would be to reunite them immediately. And far too many contracts had been signed (non-refundable contracts!) for food, entertainment, and the like to negotiate on that front.

She turned away slightly and glanced around conspiratorially. Nobody else was in the room. She pretended to be doubtful about this and looked even harder. Finally she reached for her writing board and motioned Hawke behind her desk.

"I certainly hope he is okay," she said with a wink to Hawke. "Now you wanted to see me about a gown?"

[Safe and well.] she wrote [Hidden in Skyhold. Wish I could say more. Not safe to talk here. Ball = distraction. Slip you both out afterward.]

Hawke leaned heavily on the desk, breathing noticeably faster.

"Please?" Her expression begged. "Just for a moment!"

"Patience," said Josephine's pressed lips.

Then out loud again, she said, "Come, I have the perfect outfit for you!"


	4. Chapter 4

"Scribbles!" Varric was actually running down the hallway toward Josephine. She had just finished helping Hawke get ready and was on her way to start on Anders.

"Hawke's dress..." (the dwarf paused to calm his breathing down) "...wasn't that the same one we tried to get the Seeker to wear to the Winter Palace?"

"Yes..." Josephine responded, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Made for the seeker's measurements?"

"Yes..."

"But now it needs alterations of course. To fit the Champion properly."

"Varric, what is this about?"

"I needs to know specifics!" He was talking faster and almost pacing in place. "Material added or seams taken in? Particularly around the...ah..." He gestured to his shoulders and upper arms and pantomimed flexing his muscles. "For research purposes," he added.

"Oh?" Josephine put her free hand on her hip, tilting her noteboard farther away from the dwarf. "Does this have anything to do with your new book deal? For a fully-illustrated action serial?"

"Now Scribbles, don't you think you're jumping to conclusions here?"

"Am I?" she smirked. "Were you also doing research when you dared Cassandra to lie on her back and do reverse press ups with Commander Cullen atop her shield?"

Well..."

"And surely you must have years of data on Hawke and 'Blondie' from Kirkwall, but..."

Varric broke. "...It's just not comparable at all!" he exclaimed in despair. "I've seen her grab the man by the back of his coat, throw him over her shoulders like a summer shawl, and take off running in full armor, but he's...he's only..." he bent to pick up a leaf and dejectedly fluttered it around as if it was caught up in a light breeze.

"Go ask them if you're so curious," Josephine offered.

Varric frowned and cleared his throat nervously.

She pretended to look over the notes on her writing board. 

"What's it worth to you?"

"Scrib--Josephine, please!"

She bent down to whisper into his ear while trying desperately not to laugh: "It's a bare-shouldered dress!"


	5. Chapter 5

"Your order is ready, Lady Montilyet."

"Thank you."

With the mage rebellion hosted at Skyhold, it had been almost disappointingly easy to have a set of dress robes made to Anders' measurements. 

She gathered up the robes (silver-trimmed black), cape (ultramarine), and oversized mask (silver filigree) and set off for the safehouse by an alternate route. Her cover story had been absolutely seamless, and it disappointed her that she'd never needed to use a single detail.

A guard recognized her and moved some boards away from a broken down section of battlement. Two candlelit flights of stairs later, she knocked 8 times in quick, sharp succession, and the door opened. 

"Josie, thank the Maker you're here, I'm being--ow!--killed slowly with hairbrushes."

She sighed. "I told you short hair would be easier--and a better disguise."

Anders ran a hand over his clean-shaven chin. "You also told me having a small animal attached to my face would--ow!--be a better disguise."

The hairdresser finished parting his hair down the middle (to change up his familiar hairline at least) and combed it back into a low ponytail. 

Josephine brandished a hair ribbon, and now both guests of honor were ready.


	6. Chapter 6

"Did you see Hawke's dress?" (Leliana looked like she'd almost resigned herself to enjoying the plan, despite herself.)

Josephine sighed wistfully as they watched the Champion of Kirkwall fidget and re-adjust her stunning, deep-red ball gown. "She should be dancing."

Leliana almost smiled. "She wants to, I can see it. But not with just anyone."

If they didn't do something soon, Hawke would drop the subtlety and start openly searching the crowd.

"Where's Anders?" 

"Too far away. She'll get impatient and start shoving people, and once that happens, it's going to cause a scene."

Josephine scanned the crowd. 

Sera and Dagna were somewhere near the refreshments.

Cassandra had been carefully positioned safely out of the way.

Judit was slowly leading Cullen through what looked like a traditional Dalish dance. (Cullen!)

"Inquisitor..." Josephine expertly wove through the crowd, reached the par, and began talking quietly. "If you remember the Commander's history in Kirkwall..."

"Josie, we're all the way over here," the Inquisitor reassured her.

"If they don't find each other soon, I may have to start a circle dance," Josephine warned. 

The Inquisitor crossed her arms. "Josephine, I'm doing everything in my power to reunite this man with his...wife? girlfriend? without getting him arrested and made tranquil. If he's prone to falling into a fit of paranoid panic at the mere sight of my dancing partner, then it's not Cullen who deserves to be stuffed away in a closet somewhere."

Cullen was nodding, but the guilt was clear on his face.

"Scribbles, what's going on?" Varric impatiently gestured back toward the dance floor. "They're almost twenty feet apart, let's go!"

"But the Commander...?"

"Oh I already told Blondie. He doesn't like it, of course, but we don't' have to worry about him causing a scene."

"You...talked to him? But I thought..."

"Yeah...well he trusts me okay?" Varric sighed. "How else were we going to make sure nothing happened?" The dwarf chuckled. "Lock Curly up in a closet somewhere?"

The Inquisitor raised her eyebrows, and Josephine sighed.


	7. Chapter 7

"Marian?" Josephine saw Anders' mouth form the word from across the dance floor. Either a breathless whisper, or fully speechless.

Hawke could only stand there and gaze at him as all the tensions and worries of the past few months melted away. Josephine smiled. She liked to think the hair or robes played some part in it. 

And Varric...

Varric who had been visibly grumpy about the whole arrangement since Anders had first arrived at Skyhold. 

Varric who'd sighed, shrugged, looked away...everything to profess his reluctance to support his best friend.

When Anders suddenly tipped Hawke backward into a low dip and a long kiss, Varric cheered himself hoarse and looked happier than Josephine had ever seen him.

Then Cassandra started shoving her way through the crowd with Leliana behind her, and the plan began to crumble.

Leliana wouldn't have even had to tell her anything. The seeker was one of the few people who could recognize the Champion of Kirkwall through her mask, and she'd read that exaggerated biography enough times to put two and two together when she saw Hawke go weak at the knees and throw her arms around a man in mage robes.

Josephine saw the standoff form as if in slow motion.

Cassandra shouting.

Hawke standing in front of Anders, shouting.

Anders shouting with blue magic starting to flicker across his robes.

The confused crowd about to turn into an angry mob at one clarifying word from Cassandra...or whatever Anders was about to do.

The Inquisitor and Cullen pushing their way through the crowd, but too far away to be of any immediate use.

If she could only render Cassandra speechless for about ten seconds.

Whatever she did would need Varric's cooperation. What would inspire him to--The serial! Of course! Marian Hawke and Cassandra Pentaghast were widely known to be close enough in build. His serial could claim that either one of them was stronger, and nobody would question him. But his "research" wasn't for the serial. He desperately wanted to believe his friend could beat the Seeker in a fight and wanted even more desperately to find out for sure if it was true.

Josephine scrambled to come up with a way to get Hawke and Cassandra fighting without saying anything that would get the crowd to recognize either of the fugitives.

But it was Varric who spoke.

"Seeker, you're about to get the guard-captain's brother killed all over again!"

"What?" (Whatever it was, it was working.)

Remember Justin? Apostate? Complicated past? He was the villain for a while, sure, but I assure you the guard-captain never forgave herself for striking down her own brother in front of his love just hours before the two of them planned to go off together and--

"VARRIC!" Hawke angrily cut him off.

Josephine was impressed. Cassandra was reeling as if physically struck, the crowd was even more confused, and Hawke had just grabbed Anders by the hand and vanished into the sea of faces.

"What's the point of showing sympathy to a fictional character if you can't forgive a real person?" Varric begged Cassandra as she watched them go.

"What just happened?" Cullen asked quietly.

"I...I think Varric programmed some mind control into his latest romance novel," the Inquisitor responded, shaking her head in admiration.

"More than anything, he just wants to see her safe and happy," Josephine whispered, still stunned by what she'd just witnessed.


End file.
